'Change agents'

Nessa Trenton, Suzanne Clarke, Victoria Jones, Jonathan Mailman, and Jennifer Powley are this year's recipients of the Governors' Awards. (Nick Pearce photo)

It was kind of like a Hollywood premiere but without movie. At yesterday’s 2008 Governors’ Awards reception, the student stars walked a red carpet and smiled as dozens of people lined up to get their photographs.

Created in 1992, the Governors’ Award is the most prestigious award given for student leadership at Dalhousie. This year, Suzanne Clarke, Victoria Jones, Jonathan Mailman, Jennifer Powley and Nessa Trenton joined the exclusive club of Governors’ Award winners. They were singled out for their extracurricular activities – their involvement in student politics, student societies, community service and advocacy.

In fact, they’re involved in so much, that Dalhousie President Tom Traves wondered how they had time for school at all. Suzanne Clarke, for one, is occupied with activities as diverse as the Dalhousie Student Union, Engineers Without Borders, Girl Guides and the Children’s Aid Society. From Etobicoke, Ont., she’s working towards a combined honours in sociology and microbiology/immunology.

But Jonathan Mailman sees it differently: “I’m trying to figure out what other people do with their lives… if I didn’t have all this stuff on the side, I would get really, really bored.”

Mr. Mailman has been involved in the chemistry society, science society, dance society and Dalhousie stage combat. Now in his second year of the pharmacy program, he’s the president elect of a national student group, the Canadian Association of Pharmacy Student and Interns (CAPSI). Besides all that, he works two jobs: serving as a corporal in the army reserves and at a community pharmacy in Dartmouth.

“I really enjoy all the things I do at Dalhousie – it all builds on the Dalhousie experience,” says the Dartmouth native.

Resplendent in green for St. Patrick’s Day, Victoria Jones was lauded for all that she does, including serving as a student rep on the Dalhousie Senate, volunteering at the Atlantic Film Festival, founding a society for students of Canadian Studies, and spearheading efforts (along with friends Hilary Taylor and Keith Torrie) to bring Rick Mercer to campus by raising the most money in the Spread the Net challenge.

“It’s just a matter of not sleeping,” she says, matter-of-factly. The fourth-year student in history and Canadian studies is currently involved in a new campaign; she’s running for VP internal in the DSU’s general election.

Jennifer Powley, in the second-year of her master’s degree in planning, was recognized for her advocacy work for people with mobility challenges at the Faculty of Architecture and Planning and in the wider HRM community. The 30-year-old graduate student originally from Vegreville, Alberta, has Multiple Sclerosis and is confined to a motorized wheelchair.

At the Faculty of Architecture and Planning, her efforts has led to improvements in terms of getting a power door on a washroom and a lower sink in the kitchen with space to wheel under it. She’s also met with Mayor Peter Kelly to press for more accessible taxis.

“He promised a task force would be struck but nothing yet,” she says. “Sometimes you need a little patience. You need to know when to press forward and when to step back.”

Like Ms. Powley, Nessa Trenton was recognized as a “change agent,” pressing for improvements in the lives of students, particularly for first-year students. Now in her third-year of studies, the Toronto native says she was concerned by what she saw happening in residence during frosh week.

“It was a volatile environment,” she explains. She is working towards a BA, with a combination major in theatre and gender and women’s studies. “There was harassment; there was disrespect … and this was how I was welcomed to Dalhousie? I just thought, ‘This isn’t funny. This shouldn’t be happening.’”

Ms. Trenton, along with another volunteer with the Dalhousie Women’s Centre, started asking people about their frosh-week experiences and brought their findings to the VP for Student Services. There have since been changes, such as the dropping of outrageous frosh names.

"It just makes sense to me to fight against injustice."